Sunday, July 27, 2014

Holy Crap, I'm Quoted on Forbes.com 7/27/14 (How to Land a Job In the Music Industry or a Job in a Competitve Environment or Win a Pitch)

So, I'd just finished publishing this post and checked my email to discover I've been quoted on Forbes.com in this article about creative techniques for how to win a pitch or land a job in a competitive industry:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/07/27/would-you-go-this-far-to-win-a-job-or-a-project/2/

Yeah, to land a music industry job, I really bought a ticket, stood in line, and waited for my potential boss to walk by. And it got me the job!

It was one of my first big jobs in the music business, and I was so unsavvy that when I went to the job interview and the interview lasted less than five minutes, I thought I'd blown it.

Later, my boss told me I got the job when I'd handed him my resume, and that the interview was just a formality to make sure I'd show up. He said he'd wanted to hire me on the spot because he knew I'd get the job done.

If you're going to try something creative to land a job, you must have something on your resume to bring to the table. Your resume has to be ready for whatever that job is, because for the employer, it has to be worth taking the risk to hire someone who does things a little differently.

In my case, I'd been in bands and working around them since I was sixteen, and had managed my own band and a local who grew a regional-ish following and got local airplay. The job I was applying for was a good fit, because it was the logical next rung on the ladder.

Now...having said all that, we live in a different world now. That was long before 9/11 and public shootings and all that. These days, being too bold can easily get you booted out, blacklisted, or at the very least, looked at strangely. And there's email and social media, so if you do something stupid, people will know about it.

Also, some people tend to take things over the line into stalking.
If a complete stranger did to me what I did to land that interview, I'd be freaked out. And it would be stalking. (Intention does not matter when it comes to stalking; it's the actions and how those actions make the other person feel.)

Remember: Although we'd never met, my boss and I were already talking, so I wasn't a complete stranger to him. We just were having trouble scheduling a job interview because he was overwhelmed with work. So my goal was to show him that as his assistant, I could make his life easier by saving him steps.

But it could have just as easily backfired. With some employers, it would have. Some employers think they want creative thinking, but they really don't. I may have just been quoted on Forbes and on Chris Brogan's business blog, but I'm savvy enough to know that I don't fit into the company culture of most corporations.

So, you must be creative and be bold, but not stupid. There has to be congruency between what you're pitching and where you're pitching it.
And you must weigh what you're doing very carefully.

Always, always, always put yourself in the other person's shoes and really think about what the worst possible scenario might be, and what the other person might possibly think. You may be a wonderful person, but a stranger doesn't know that. And if you frighten or creep them out, they don't really care.


MIght it frighten or creep them out? Especially if your potential boss is the opposite sex?
What if they're a nervous or paranoid person? What if they've been stalked in the past?  And if the worst possible case scenario happens and that person thinks the worst, what are the consequences?

Getting an FBI file because you got desperate with your job hunt is never a good idea.

Good luck!

RR